Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Astarion romance improvements

In my opinion, the modder also did a great job on the animation, and the bodies' movements look much more realistic than in the original. Comparison:

***Warning! Spoiler contains a screenshot of an erotic nature. 17+***


Tav's facial expression in the mod also looks much better. The only thing I slightly dislike is the moment where Astarion appears to have headlight eyes, in this case I would have preferred the look that was in the original.

Of course, removing that no-needed candle is the main improvement this scene needs. But perhaps Larian could also take a look at the way the modder has handled the animations; it's a clear step forward in terms of visualizing romantic scenes in the game. And since, as the beta testers said, the developers are now working on the facial expressions of game characters, this mod could be a great example of the kind of facial expressions Tav needs in this romantic scene. And in other moments of interaction with Astarion, especially in the epilogue, I would also like to have a smile on her face rather than the expression that is there now.


This is great news! Thank you so much!


Yes! These are great lines! Dear Larian, please make them available in the game! They are already recorded, and I'd love to hear them from Astarion.

I'm looking forward to finally hearing these lines in the game.I like the conversation that AA has with Minthy best ... beware of my Minthy bugging in honor mode again. Until then praise the sun

Thanks again for checking out so many things in the beta

Now that patch 7 is out, there are a couple of things I'd like to bring up (video references heavy post warning).

1. New kisses:

Thank you for FINALLY giving us consensual AA kisses back:


I think the bite kiss could be improved a bit, there are still some old expressions left in it, but fortunately all the terrified faces are gone at last. I also would appreciate if Tav actually touched Astarion back, but overall I'm quite pleased with the change. I really like Tav that smirks a lot now, which is how I imagined my Tav to behave in there.


2. The new dialogue if you went with Karlach to Avernus:


I love these new lines! They're perfect and I adore how playful, chill and confident AA is in them.

The only thing that doesn't make sense is that mind flayer Tav gets treated like a regular consort, when we know AA only sees illithid Tav as an ally and puts a stop to romantic interactions between them. This is the same thing as in the epilogue party where Astarion also has normal consort lines.

Please fix this!


3. Evil DU and AA ending.

Maybe it was to be expected that DU would turn into a complete brainwashed psycho with no free will at the end, but it contradicts some previous dialogues about them and AA. There is no sitting on the lap, the Tribunal priestess' prophecy is completely disregarded (DU and AA dying together in each other's arms), no dowry, etc.


If Larian decided to go this route, there should at least be an explanation why this is happening! As it stands now, DU is railroaded into a murder-hobo who seems to have no feelings left for their partner:

As mentioned here, like with Minthara, the same applies to AA:


DU players deserve this ending


4. Tav/redeemed DU and AA evil endings.

Tav and AA can apparently only keep the romance if Tav chooses option 1 and perhaps 4 (in some videos we can see Astarion and the rest of the party members following Tav, in the others not, and I don't why). For some reason they cannot rule together in option 2 (where we can see Astarion kneeling near the scaffold with the other companions), and in choice 3 Tav kills him like all the others. I think this severely limits roleplay options. I would like to see Astarion being by Tav's side all the time (since they're supposed to rule together), and not just be their glorified sidekick.


Also, if Tav fails the ceremorphosis check, it is very weird that AA has no reaction to that. He's not shown at all! We also don't see what illithid Tav does to him and the other companions (I'm sure they get turned into squids too, but the game should let us see this, same as it does when Tav decides to kill everyone).


5. Evil DU UA ending betrayal scene.

I appreciate that there is a clear distinction between UA and AA dialogue in here, both of their deaths are utterly heartbreaking. With UA however, one thing that doesn't make much sense is how willingly he walks up to DU and kisses them. The scene was clearly designed with AA in mind, who is happy to see DU gaining control of the brain. UA heavily criticises them and then just casually gives them a kiss? It looks laughable.



6. Astarion can become a Sun King in his origin ending:


I would love it if there was an option for Tav who romances him and is his spawn to have a unique ending where they behave similarly and can also decide to give the reins to him or turn them both into godlike vampiric rulers.

Thanks Ametris for the options and videos.

As long as I kill AA as an evil Durge, I will never accept Bhaal. It's a shame, I would have liked to destroy the world together with AA like in option 5 and then give ourselves up to the night together, lying in our arms. It would also have fit better with the prophecy and not neglected these things. That would also have been better suited to what Ascended Astarion says after turning night:

"First we'll take Baldur's Gate. Then we'll take the world. We'll dominate it until the sun itself melts, and then we'll give ourselves to the night."

I have little hope that improvements will be made there. They made my Durgie cry.

I have to betrayl Bhaal, not that I wouldn't have fun with it too. ^^

The patch came too early, I almost saw the epilogue with AA, it seems my destiny is to become the Absolute or go insane or have to kill my Durgie. lol

But oh yeah, Praise the Sun Lord . That would be so cool if, as Tav/Durge, you could give him the opportunity to become the Absolute and thus the Sun Lord. "Here darling, sit down, take the throne, let's build a vampire kingdom."

It's a letdown for sure. Poor Durgie!


Now that I finally had some time to test a couple of things I noticed that the mysteriously appearing once in a blue moon new animations of AA at the epilogue party that I mentioned are now working properly. I think they're better overall, Astarion looks more playful and his movements are more fluid.

Ametris, thanks for the video! I agree with every suggestion you made, as well as your pointing out mistakes that would be good to correct.


Yes, would love to have any explanation on this. What is even meant by this in the first place? Bhaal makes the DU insane either way, and it doesn't matter if the DU takes control of the Brain or not? Only in one case we have a demented person reduced to an animal state, and in the other case we have 'as some sort of sexual kink of his that makes him look like an uncontrollable psychopathic smirking imbecile with a crippling addiction that only gets off on murdering his lover who willingly wishes to be with him' (thanks Crimsonrider for a clear description of , what the DU becomes in their evil ending with Minthara and Astarion, because when I watched the video, I didn't even know how to define it). And pity poor Sceleritas - I wanted to stay an evil DU for his sake, but I guess that kind of ending put a stop to that.

Besides, what is the point of Bhaal doing this, why not let the DU stay themselves if they have already decided to destroy the world in the name of Bhaal? Why not let the DU do it along with their beloved? How can the beloved of the DU damage Bhaal's plan? The finale where the DU destroys the Brain and becomes an animal was also always going to make no sense logically, and, even in terms of Bhaal's understanding. The defeated Sarevok we see fully preserved his mind, and the fact that the DU didn't take control of the Brain and destroy the world right away is irrelevant. Time doesn't matter that much to Bhaal. Even a lazy DU who doesn't want to become a destroyer of anything and everything themselves will produce offspring for Bhaal, and Bhaal has absolutely no need to try to bring them into an animal state to do so. A much better and realistic ending would have been if the DU (female) or the DU's beloved (if the DU is a male paired with a female) was pregnant in the epilogue at the party, and then a shot of the new born baby with Bhaal's seal flashing in their eye, saying nothing is over, Bhaal will still get what he wants... That would have been a much better ending. But okay, let's say it was meant that Bhaal is evil, and the DU who has accepted his father must follow his evil to the end, otherwise there will be a cruel reckoning, but now... The only way to play as a DU is through the path of redemption, exclusively. Unfortunately, the attitude towards evil characters is often such in the game that the possibility of playing without spoilers in the path of evil is seen by me as something extremely imprudent as a player, and for good reason. Unfortunately, I never got around to completing my evil walkthrough with the DU, because now the only option for me is to reject Bhaal. But “knowledge is power” and the metagame is still better than suddenly seeing this ending in my game.

Why so much effort, aesthetically beautiful visuals, and music if it's impossible to play it on an emotional level?

Astarion has a face like a child just before the DU kills him.

Larian made great evil endings for Origins of companions, but the DU ending is just worse than anything else. Okay, they added other great improvements in patch 7, I can see destroying the evil DU path as a sort of payment for that. But it still doesn't feel right in my opinion.


Indeed. This scenario is much better.


Option 1 I consider to be the only possible option for my evil walkthrough. Option 4 is still pretty controversial, but it should be noted that this option has, in my opinion, the most spectacular and impressive video sequence, and of course, if Astarion was next to Tav the whole time and grinning his trademark grin while enjoying the spectacle of the dramatic carnage all around, it would be very interesting. Too bad Astarion won't even be standing next to me in option 1 either, which is frustrating. I'd like to imagine them leading armies to take the god sphere (find the sphere or kill the right deity). Astarion becomes a god, and already no paladins, no “good heroes” will ever threaten at all. We can then get rid of the Brain, which will no longer be needed, and live as happily as in the castle, only this time in our own domaine. And you can say, “Oh, my God! What on earth is going on here!” whenever Astarion pulls some kind of prank. In principle, option 1 can be considered as the only happy option for ‘evil’, and it allows to have a happy headcanon, but the beloved, unfortunately, is not shown in the frame and remains as if on the second role.

Option 2 is initially a great idea that was hopelessly merged at the end. The idea of “rule through love”, with the townspeople mentally in some sort of happy world of their own, is such an exquisite version of evil, which in itself is good (reminiscent of “The Matrix”) but... A huge statue of themselves? Pretty stupid waste of resources, I was sure they were going to go build something worthwhile. And the beloved kneeling beside the scaffold... Mhm. Too bad for a good idea that got such a realization as a result.

But thanks for the opportunity to kiss Astarion in the evil finale. It's worth becoming an Absolute for the sake of it. But why can't the same kiss be placed in the classic “good” epilogue as well? Dear Larian, please, the animation as we see it is already there, just give the possibility to kiss Astarion the same way in both the evil finale and the party in the epilogue. Spare the innocent citizens of Baldur! Why do they have to necessarily die so that Tav/DU can kiss Astarion? The classic epilogue needs a kiss just as much as the evil one too (even more, it's still the one players choose more often in their walkthroughs).


A thousand times yes! The Sun King ending itself is great and very beautiful! It would be ideal to make a transition to this from the usual ending. Having Astarion smile, propose to him via mind link, and Astarion himself stabbing Karlach and taking the power - that would have been the best ending. Otherwise, the only downside to the Sun King ending is that Tav can't be there.


Yes, Astarion's animations in the epilogue got better! I also really liked how he looks now when he says he's going to watch me. He became more loving and passionate in that moment.

I'm completely satisfied with the new evil endings and I think AA has much more pressing matters now to fix. Like, for example, his completely bugged epilogues with a mindflayer Tav.
Also, Spawn deserves to get his stuff fixed first as of right now he feels neglected compared to AA. These seems to be the three new kiss lines from Astarion, but they do not yet trigger in game, but they are already recorded:
- My love
- You don't have to ask, but I am glad you did
- If you must

Also, Astarion still has no reaction to being kidnapped by his siblings, and maybe it's not a romance content per se, but it's a great opportunity for Tav to tell him how much they were worried about him being kidnapped and all that.

I am with you about the Spawn's bit. I was kinda hoping they would fix those kiss lines in this patch but they didn't. It may seem a trifle but I really wouldn't mind hearing them in my Spawn route.
I know there's a mod supposedly fixing them but why rely on that. I wonder why the lines are not triggering, is this a bug or something else. I don't think they would contradict anything in the story when they play out later on after the ritual.

This is also a new thing I see:



RIP "I will eat you right up".

Why change this dialogue? It was great before, now it sounds less flirty and fun, meh.

The old dialogue for the comparison purpose:

+1 Would have adored this.


Thank you for sharing. And +1
The voice line and text before were perfect, flirty and lighthearted. It was really exciting. The playful voice line has been there since release. Why is something like this suddenly changed? The voice doesn't sound convincing either, the intonation in "to leave you wanting more" doesn't sound well in my opinion, more disinterested, less playful. The old emphasis with “to leave you wishing for more” was more convincing. "I will eat you right up" was lovely, and I loved this ambiguity. It's a pity that Astarion becomes less playful and less cheeky.
RIP "I will eat you right up"

About the intonation in “to leave you wishing more” and “I will eat you right up” I agree, the old accent was more convincing, now Astarion is less playful. But I noticed one positive thing about the new dialog that I liked - the “Just enough to give me strength” line. Before, Astarion used to say it quickly, as if in a hurry, and I could hear a slight apologetic note in it. Now it's gone, this particular phrase sounds better, Astarion says it slower and clearer, more confidently and without any hint of apology or shyness. I liked this moment, in general, “in a vacuum” the new dialog is also very pleasant to me - Astarion invites you to a bite as if it were a dance (such associations it evokes for me). I guess if I saw this dialog for the first time in the game, I'd definitely like it, but the previous “I will eat you right up” certainly sounded better. Probably the ideal would be to combine the old “I will eat you right up” with the new “Just enough to give me strength” intonation.

Overall, patch 7 brought a lot of good things for Astarion, and I like a certain general trend of Astarion becoming more confident and stronger (in my opinion). The new expressions in his epilogue say the same thing (also in the epilogue they improved the foreshortening, Astarion seems younger and even more attractive), the overall trend looks positive.

I noticed other places that seem to me to have been changed. I have to put the scenes side by side. *Dive into my video box and search*

I didn't want to derail the other thread any further, so I dug this one up since it seemed to be the most fitting, maybe? It at least has the most neutral topic.


I think that, apart from personal preference and perception, this might also depend on the model of the player character. In a yt clip, I noticed, that with the slender, female human-sized model the hug is a bit looser, while with the slender male human-sized model, the characters basically melt into each other. (Especially if your character is Gale who has a bit of extra shoulder padding in his epilogue outfit.) Just as a thought.

TBH I don't think there is an issue with the epilogue hug. To me it definitely reads way more romantic and intimate than the act 2 one?

I find it's most of all much less stiff than the act 2 one and much less hesitating on Astarion's part too. It's a good hug in any case.

Yeah, maybe. What the hug looks like really depends on Tav's build. My Act 2 hugs have also varied a bit between playthroughs - when I played Tav with body 3, Astarion was very touching snuggled into her shoulder in the finale, and with DU with body 1, the hugs are a bit different, but also very touching.


And why is it stiff in Act 2? About the hesitation - yes, of course, such a reaction to hugging at Astarion can be only at the very first time. But then, when he's already snuggled up to Tav, it's the best hug in the world.

I would like to point out that I am in no way speaking in favor of changing the UA hugs in the epilogue, in another thread I mentioned them only as a general reasoning, this is my personal perception, I don't play the UA route and don't want to comment on any possible changes to that route.

The change I'd really like to see in the game is a modified Act 2 hug in the epilogue of Ascended Astarion (without the hesitation at the beginning). And even better (well, that's a dream in general), not only in the epilogue, but as an additional romantic act that can be repeated at any time (similar as kissing).

So you just want UA? This is one point that makes them different. Let them be different. You have the hug in act 2 before Astarions story can take its different paths. The paths are different for a reason. If you want to hug AA, use the hug mod but leave the canon as it is. As has been said before, a hug is crucial for Astarions romance pre-ritual, and pre-ritual Astarion is much more similar to UA than AA.





As much as I love hugs and love the hug mod, disagree on it being canon in the game without the mod. For AA for obvious reasons but even for spawn. The hug in act 2 is most likely the only time he felt comfortable sharing this side of him „publicly“ in front of the other companions, since it’s not a secluded scene like the graveyard, I assume they all see it maybe. It’s clear that a hug is very intimate for him so I don’t think it fits with him publicly displaying it. I wouldn’t mind it, for spawn (!), but it wouldn’t be on my personal wishlist.

Again, I drag this over to here because I don't want to bother with the spoiler tags.



I have no issues with poetic language. I love both Gale and Lae'zel's writing and both of them are very poetic and very sincere. I do however agree with Shadowheart that what Astarion sprouts in terms of flowery romantic language, is mostly canned & corny. It's insults where he invests his creativity. But that's personal taste. I can't stand his seducer and ascended voice and don't particularly like the act 1 scene, I know that others do. Relying on romance tropes is also not necessarily a comment on the veracity of the statements. Wyll also runs on cliches and I doubt anyone questions his sincerity.

The can of worms of how sincere AA is, is one I deliberately kept close because it would just start a debate that would run in circles as everyone so far had a very fixed opinion of this. (Which is fine.)

I want to hug Astarion - my beloved, that's what I want. He doesn't have a UA twin that magically separates from him. He is Astarion. If two twins and two different people exist in your headcanon, you have every right to your interpretation of the game's plot and can choose between these “twins” based on your preferences at the moment, just as you can decide for yourself which of these newborn twins resembles their “pre-ritual” ancestor. I want to hug Astarion both before and after he goes through the Ascension ritual. It's pretty ridiculous to consider that I can't approach my beloved person for some “reason” in order to hug him. Such reasons do not exist in nature. Of course there are limitations in a game, the player does not have the ability to act as they would in reality, the player's options are limited to what the developer provides them. Therefore, players can ask the developers to add more options to the game for them. The paths are different in that in one case Astarion is an Ascended Vampire and in the other a spawn, what does the ability to embrace him have to do with it? UA players have their hug in the epilogue and they like it judging by their comments, that's great, AA players (yes, there are two different fandoms, but not two different Astarions) have nothing in the epilogue. Only the possibility of taking control of Brain to kiss Astarion, but then, alas, no party.

Ascended Astarion is the only LI in the game who cannot even be touched in any way in the epilogue. So, dear Larian, I really ask you to give our fandom the same opportunity to kiss or hug our LI that other players have. UA players have hugs with LI, give us that opportunity as well. Modified Act 2 hugs would be ideal, as these hugs are beautiful and very much want to do them again.


Okay, if Astarion in act 2, let's say, wouldn't want to hug in public, it would be possible to add that option in case the player goes alone with Astarion with no other companions, then it wouldn't be public. I'm happy to leave everyone else in the camp so they don't embarrass him, it's not hard for me to do at all. After Ascension, Astarion doesn't really care about the other companions' opinions, if kissing me publicly on my knees doesn't embarrass him in any way, then he probably won't be embarrassed by my embrace afterwards either. A great option - in the second act make it necessary to leave other companions in the camp for the sake of hugs (by the way, Astarion can kiss in public for some reason, then, perhaps, it makes sense to go with him only two for the sake of all romantic interactions), and after he Ascended and became more confident, hug and kiss him in all squares of the city.

Of course the ritual matters to Astarion's story - he gains complete independence, a beating heart, power and freedom.

It's a strange lack of embrace and even stranger to draw any conclusions about the path and ‘what kind of attitude the player should form towards Astarion on the path of evil’ from that.
If think that way it only speaks to Larian's lacklustre plot, inept rpg and double standards.
Um, no. if I can hug Sharr Shedowhart, I should be able to do it with Astarion.

UA has no kiss, should I now conclude that he is in a heavy stage of trauma treatment when 6 months ago he was kissing Tav - could be of course, but more likely it just wasn't added.

No animation means no animation. Tav tells AA that ‘no one dares touch us, my love’, zero reason not to add a hug.
Well, Tav kisses him perfectly in the evil new ending.